Rivers` Ousting Won`t Destroy Fox`s Future

May 19, 1987|By BILL KELLEY,Television Writer

You can write off Joan Rivers as a TV force for the `80s. And you probably should. But don`t think that Fox Broadcasting Co. will vanish with the same sweeping motion that knocked The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers off the air last week.

The acid-tongued comedian, who seems to have a bad word for just about everyone, was removed by Fox from her own program after Thursday`s show. This week, The Late Show is airing reruns featuring guest hosts, who substituted for Rivers during a recent vacation.

What happened? Fox representatives won`t say officially, but they concede Rivers wasn`t getting the 6.0 rating promised to advertisers. In South Florida, on WCIX-Ch. 6 and WFLX-Ch. 29, she briefly peaked at about a 4.0, then dropped to a 3.0 when viewer curiosity slackened. In less-urban areas of the country, where Rivers doesn`t have a following (but where Fox, which blankets 80 percent of the country, has stations), Rivers was doing even worse.

Many viewers won`t be sorry to see Rivers go. The most common criticism was that her humor was needlessly coarse and vulgar at best; inexcusably ugly and cruel at worst. When she was given her own program and responded by toning her act down and playing kissy-face with her guests, that merely threw hypocrisy into an already foul brew.

FOX`S SURVIVAL INSTINCT

But the Fox attempt at a ``fourth network`` is not likely to go down in flames with Rivers. The speed with which Fox booted her off The Late Show is proof of that. Once it was established that The Late Show was not attracting viewers, Fox removed Rivers so that the time slot wouldn`t be further poisoned by her presence.

And Fox`s other programs, airing on Sundays in prime time -- 21 Jump Street, Duet, Mr. President and so on -- haven`t been doing badly. 21 Jump Street, a police show, occasionally comes close to registering the 6.0 rating promised to sponsors.

In truth and in fairness to Rivers -- who does have a following, and was enormously popular as Johnny Carson`s substitute host -- Fox`s decision to do any talk show was a bad one. The Late Show was a clone of NBC`s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, but without the same caliber of guests.

``But The Late Show is an Emmy Award-winning masterpiece compared to Thicke of the Night, the Alan Thicke show of a few years back,`` recalled Lew Schatzer, advertising director of Channel 6, a former Metromedia employee. ``Metromedia had to edit together a week`s worth of shows to get Thicke`s first night on the air, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Viewers wondered why his clothes kept changing throughout the show.``

THE JERRY LEWIS SYNDROME

Metromedia tried a similar experiment a couple of years ago, with a week`s worth of summer programs starring Jerry Lewis. Not even the presence of Frank Sinatra as a guest could generate interest in that fiasco.

But I don`t think ``the Metromedia curse,`` as Schatzer described Fox`s experience with the talk show format, will infect the rest of Fox Broadcasting. Barry Diller, chairman of Fox Inc., has insisted the company is committed to a two-year run.

How committed? In theory, Fox Broadcasting can last as long as publishing baron Rupert Murdoch`s money holds out. To prove that he intends to put some of his money where his grandiose statements are, Murdoch permitted Diller to outbid NBC, CBS and ABC for the coveted broadcast rights to the annual Emmy Awards -- for the next three years. Fox`s first telecast will be in September.

Fox`s primary failing is in the area of communication -- not just with the press and the public, but with its own affiliates. Executives at South Florida Fox affiliates learned of Rivers` firing by reading about it in the newspaper, or hearing it on the radio. That kind of snafu doesn`t instill confidence, or loyalty.

But the firing of Rivers -- who almost immediately left for a booking in Las Vegas -- shouldn`t damage Fox`s credibility. Rather, it should demonstrate that Fox executives recognized their major liability, and swiftly eliminated it.